Infidelity on high

Why does the shadow of John F. Kennedy hover so persistently over all modern-day political sex scandals?

Probably because the US president-cum-cult figure is such a contrast with his descendants in the high-profile dalliance stakes. Despite a steady stream of shocking details in recent years about JFK’s reckless behaviour, he was never brought down by his zip, either in office or posthumously.

The same rules do not apply today.

The thrill of the illicit still lures men in power just as it did in the early 1960s. Basic human nature – that is, the testosterone rush that men experience when they bask in the adulation that comes with public success after taking bold risks in the military, politics and business – has not changed.

But in this porn-soaked post-sexual revolution world, men at the top also have countless more tempting opportunities for extra-conjugal, kinky hanky-panky.

Disgraced US Congressman Anthony Weiner’s display of his kit on Twitter in mid-2011 wasn’t even an option until a few years ago.

The glaring difference between JFK’s time and ours is that in our all-knowing epoque, the straying men stand to lose everything – and often do.

A string of recently destroyed careers and personal lives includes decorated former US General and disgraced CIA boss David Petraeus; former French presidential hopeful Dominique Strauss-Kahn; and fallen political stars such as one-time presidential aspirant John Edwards, New York Democrat Weiner and ex-New York governor Eliot Spitzer.

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The rot had set in though back in the early 1960s in Britain. That was when cabinet minister John Profumo lied to the British Parliament about his affair with Mandy Rice-Davies, a call girl who was also allegedly sleeping with a Soviet spy.

The taboo on media reporting of politicians’ affairs in the United States wasn’t broken until the 1988 presidential campaign, when an affair forced Democrat candidate Gary Hart out of the race.

Soon after, a tsunami of scandals washed over the US during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

With its strong streak of ingrained puritanism and prurient obsession with forensic details of extra-conjugal activities, the US is particularly hard on philanderers.

After all, London Mayor “Bonking Boris" Johnson has been involved in a string of escapades outside the marital bed. Yet he has rebounded and is on track as a prime ministerial contender against Mr Family Values David Cameron.

Boris may have got a leave pass but what still stands out in any examination of these famous men’s repetitive patterns of behaviour – and which never ceases to astonish – is the almost silly “catch me if you can" attitude.

When the Petraeus scandal exploded in November, forcing the resignation of the decorated CIA boss for a compromising affair with his married biographer, Paula Broadwell, Americans couldn’t help asking: “Why do these men still do it?"

Psychiatrists provide various theories. High-achieving men engage in ill-advised romps because of narcissism, above-average testosterone levels, evolutionary psychology, biology, the lure of talking about yourself to your biographer (the same erotic effect is at work as when patients fall in love with their analysts); or all of the above.

Psychology Today commented, “When you are told by lots of people, in your life and the media, just how great you are, it can be very easy to buy into this and think that it makes perfect sense to indulge yourself... don’t you deserve it?"

USA Today cited a former CIA polygraph examiner, who said the fact there was such an easily discoverable email trail between Broadwell and Petraeus “demonstrates a level of arrogance and a feeling that you’re above the law".

Biologically, men of influence may even have a higher sex drive than ordinary blokes, one of the very alpha-male traits that got them to the top in the first place, say other sexperts.

But women can sniff a classic male cop-out here. Power is an aphrodisiac, the women come a-flocking, and given plenty of chances to stray, men do.

Maybe an old-fashioned Catholic refresher course in how not to put themselves in “occasions of sin" is in order. Or some swotting up on how to avoid succumbing to that heady sense of omnipotence that comes from engaging in dangerous amorous liaisons while running countries or wars.

Changing sexual politics have complicated the fallout from these scandals.

Back in JFK’s day – or further, to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s – the discreet women involved in sexual adventures with über-males were mute secretaries, hostesses, socialites, and other men’s wives. Women generally were not admitted to the corridors of power on anything like equal terms.

Today, the partners in illicit passion are likely to be women who, if not of equivalent power or age, are at least moving in the same professional circles.

Petraeus’s biographer-turned-lover, like her paramour, graduated from West Point military academy and had a master’s degree from Harvard.

Broadwell is keeping mum. Yet scores of “other women" caught up in mistress scandals are not afraid to “tell all" in paid interviews and books – Rielle Hunter, the mother of John Edwards’s love child, is a case in point.

Faced with the uncertainties of this new social order, maybe the lesson for all concerned – men and women – should be just zip it up wherever possible.